Ummm, only one of us has been argumentative of late and posting 'aggressively'.

To start off it appears fairly common knowledge that there were moves to replace Lage in the summer, that sort of thing gets around the playing staff I am sure. The message to them is that he isn't the guy and respect goes out the window.

We know he hung Hoever out to dry, it is also known that he fell out with a few players toward the end of the season isn't it? Jonny, Jimenez I think. You can probably add Coady to that list as well.

Then of course the run continues, 1 win in 15 wasn't it by the end? The players know full well he is going, motivation drops.

Add to that the shambles that is us trying to replace Lage and motivation hits rock bottom along with the obvious confidence levels after so many lousy games.

I honestly think we are just lacking solid leadership right now more than anything and nobody will convince me these players are for the most part are poor. Nunes for example is highly regarded, we are not making that up. Guedes was good in Spain last season so he clearly isn't rubbish.

As for relying on Mendes

Boubacar Traore
Hwang
Kalajdzic
Diego Costa
Collins

Five signings there not through Mendes in 2022

Also, a few of Mendes clients were not Mendes clients prior to coming to Wolves. Ait-Nouri for one I believe and I am pretty sure a couple of others have changed to him.

Lage wasn't the best appointment we could have made by a long way, he'd been out of work for some time before coming to us which wasn't a good sign but many were excited by the prospect of him bringing his style to wolves. The problems with the squad however pre date Lage by some considerable time the blame can't lie completely with him.

The fact that Villa have been able to act so quickly and decisively where we've dithered and made excuses points to precisely where the problems lie in our club.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ywang/2022/10/24/fire-sale-chinas-warren-buffett-races-to-sell-assets/?sh=36db8abc3fbb

not a pleasant read.

Don't understand the anxiety around Mendes and the money he has made from Wolves. Pretty well every footballer and manager has an agent, and obviously every one of those agents make money from the deals they arrange. What makes Mendes stand out is that he is probably the highest rated of all the agents, not just with the clients he represents but with the clubs he deals with. I think the general consensus amongst the other clubs in the Premier League is that Wolves have been very lucky to have established a working relationship with him, that we wouldn't have done so well in the Fosun era without him, and we would be stupid not to retain his services.

comment by Cinciwolf---throwing money around like confett... (U11551)
posted 6 hours, 51 minutes ago
As for relying on Mendes

Boubacar Traore
Hwang
Kalajdzic
Diego Costa
Collins

Five signings there not through Mendes in 2022

Also, a few of Mendes clients were not Mendes clients prior to coming to Wolves. Ait-Nouri for one I believe and I am pretty sure a couple of others have changed to him.
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Adama Traore for one

I'm quite sure that there are many reasons for the team underperforming. Lack of leadership, lack of strength in depth due to to poor transfer decisions, key players missing through injury and players returning from injury not finding their previous form will all have an effect.

There are two other factors which imo have had a big impact. Firstly, bringing in new players who have a special skill to bring to the table and instead of exploiting that skill, giving them a totally unfamiliar role to play. Guedes is a prime example of this. I read an interview with him where he said that he had scored most of his goals when playing as a striker in a front 2. So Lage brings him in and sticks him on the left wing (he's right footed) and expects him to perform as before.

Secondly, I don't think it can be overstated what a huge mistake it was to loan out Conor Coady. His on field and off field presence is missed massively. The "one big family" and "wolfpack" mentality seems to be a thing of the past and without Coady's strength of character and humour in the dressing room it's inevitable that the squad will form into cliques and lose its previous identity.

For the record cinci, I was referring to Bombolini as being argumentative, which he always is towards me and not your good self.

When you have over half the squad coming from one country, you will certainly get a "clique".

No other club has relied so heavily on one agent, but little Jeff has continually gone with the players that Mendes has put forward.

If these players are that good, then pray tell me why we're second from bottom.

If Guedes is better suited in a front 2, then it cements my argument for reverting to a 3-5-2 formation, where we were far better defensively. Plus I see no end product from a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, only more goals conceded.

So you lot can continue supporting the policy of a man who doesn't know anything about the Premier League.

Sunny seems to be simultaneously arguing that our players are good enough to be challenging for Europe and that all our problems lie with the fact that we have sourced too many players through Mendes. Seems to make as much sense as Liz Truss giving a lecture on economics.

It's not my choice to bring in players from Portugal, but if they are as good as we are told, then we should not be second from bottom, we should be pushing for a European spot. So, instead of trying to emulate Bombolino and being such a smart ass, explain why we are 19th. After all, it doesn't matter who the coach is, it's the players that are on the pitch.

It doesn’t matter who the coach is. I don’t understand why we haven’t given Steve Davis a 5 year contract

Saw that Davis Nantwich record was 1 win 3 draws 7 defeats. Madness.

“So, instead of trying to emulate Bombolino and being such a smart ass, explain why we are 19th.”

We are 19th because all of our recent transfer windows have been poor. We’ve signed the wrong players, at the wrong price, for the wrong positions and seen some bizarre exits. We then sacked a poor manager and replaced him, temporarily, with a youth team coach who isn’t up to the job and have been unable to find a fulltime replacement.

Poor incomings
Poor outgoings
Poor management

Now maybe you can explain why all of that led you to think we’d be challenging for European football?

I’m happy to admit I didn’t expect it to be this bad – I predicted bottom half not a relegation battle – but no one in their right mind thought this shower would be on the coattails the top 6!

comment by Shi-er Incompetence (U6440)
posted 5 hours, 45 minutes ago
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ywang/2022/10/24/fire-sale-chinas-warren-buffett-races-to-sell-assets/?sh=36db8abc3fbb

not a pleasant read.
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But not that much of a surprise sadly. I think many of us could see the warning signs the last few years and Fosun have been trying to add/find investors for a handful of years.

The little splurge this summer perhaps was a way to show that the club was still valued to appeal to investors/buyers i guess.

I don’t remember seeing or reading anything pre-Covid but with the profile of the group they must have taken a huge hit in 2020 & 21 plus they no longer seem to be flavour of the month with Xi’s administration. Those issues plus the tightening up of lending due to the problems in the property market over there seem to have led to a downwards spiral.

I hate to think who’ll own us in 12 months’ time.

I remember them looking for investors pre covid but not outright buyers. More somebody to share the burden.

And yeah, it will obviously be Americans or Middle Eastern you would think, not sure which I would prefer. Middle Eastern has the higher potential upside I think.

Not sure Fosun’s problems necessarily mean they would sell Wolves. The value of the club is minute compared to the general assets of the company and I suspect their priorities for disposal lie elsewhere

It's looking like Neves could be off to Barcelona in January.

comment by Tamwolf (U17286)
posted 44 minutes ago
It's looking like Neves could be off to Barcelona in January.
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Cant blame him, would be a huge blow for a number of reasons

comment by wolfieinFL (U16306)
posted 6 hours, 51 minutes ago
For the record cinci, I was referring to Bombolini as being argumentative, which he always is towards me and not your good self.
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Argumentative

I'm barely on these days and it's a debate not an argument

Well there's another snippet of info. Fosun owns the largest bank in Portugal. With all these connections, I think there's something fishy going on and I don't mean the contents of Baldrick's apple crumble.

Amazing how you only have a problem when we're struggling yet no issue when we're in the quarter finals of the Europa


Oops silly me being argumentative